"Jiahe".

When the four enemy planes roared and swooped down, from the blue clouds down, the dozen officers and men in the commander's bridge were all pale with fright.

A few of the timid ones were still trembling, and they almost didn't shout.

feelings, they took the "Typhoon" as a dive bomber.

In fact, the "Typhoon" with the auxiliary fuel tank is really similar to the "Wasp", especially when diving, it is definitely full of aura.

Although it was later discovered that they were four fighters, Lan Yun was still not happy, and none of the staff officers, including Kitamura, were happy.

There is not a single air defense fighter in the sky over the mobile fleet!

Even the escort fighters returning to their homeland had already lowered their altitude and were waiting to land at a low altitude, unable to intercept the enemy planes that were killing from a high altitude.

In addition, there are a lot of warplanes waiting to land near both aircraft carriers.

The presence of these carrier-based aircraft will inevitably interfere with anti-aircraft artillery fire.

Although after reacting, Lan Yun immediately gave an order to let all the carrier-based aircraft fly away immediately, and the anti-aircraft guns did not need to distinguish between friend and foe, and could fire at the approaching aircraft at will, but Lan Yun knew very well that relying on weak anti-aircraft firepower could not change the fate of the mobile fleet at all.

It's just that Lan Yun never thought that it would be so fast!

It was 11:08 a.m. when the four "typhoons" swooped down.

At that time, Lan Yun also took a special look at his watch and remembered the time. This is a habit developed when I was a staff officer, remembering the time when each major event happened, so that I could answer it in one bite when the commander asked, and it also took accurate time to write logs and reports.

Just three minutes later, the first dive bombers with bombs arrived.

Prior to this, the lookout spotted a torpedo machine at a reduced flight altitude. It's just that those torpedo planes are still on the periphery, and they didn't immediately kill the "Jiahe".

Contrary to yesterday's battle, it was the dive bombers that took the lead in the attack.

At 11:13 a.m., six dive bombers flew over the "Jiahe" and entered the dive phase without any interference.

At this time, only two returning Zeros were still nearby, but unfortunately the altitude was not enough.

The only ones that could stop those dive bombers were anti-aircraft guns, and only those on the "Jiahe".

When recovering carrier-based aircraft, the escort warships were thousands of meters away, so it was impossible to provide cover for the aircraft carrier with fast-firing machine guns.

Large-caliber anti-aircraft guns?

In the Narrow-Minded Navy, that's a joke!

For a long time, the navy tried to use the six-inch naval guns of light cruisers as anti-aircraft guns, and at one time thought that the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns with a slow rate of fire were of no value in actual combat except for wasting valuable gun positions, and that it was better to install a few more machine guns.

In fact, there were not enough machine guns on the battleship, and it was not even enough.

At 11:14, the first "Wasp" dropped its bomb. Although the dive bomber was hit by an anti-aircraft gun and exploded in the air when it tried to change out, the five "Wasps" that followed all successfully dropped their bombs, and all of them successfully changed their dives.

Of the six bombs, three were hit.

The hit rate of 50 percent is scary enough!

Although in the next few minutes, the "Wasp" of the second squadron dropped three more bombs, and the "Exocet" group led by Zhu Huasheng hit five torpedoes, what made the "Jiahe" finish off was actually a bomb dropped by the first batch of dive bombers.

This bomb, after hitting the "Jiahe", did not explode!

The officers and men who left the "Jiahe" alive, including Lan Yun, clearly remember that in the first wave of attacks, the "Jiahe" exploded only twice.

In addition, the explosion caused a fire.

Less than 11:20 a.m., that is, before the second batch of "wasps" arrived, the officers and men of the mobile fleet headquarters such as Lan Yun and Kitamura were sent to the speedboat.

Just like when he left the "Chicheng", Lan Yun was also forcibly dragged out of the commander's bridge.

Because the other warships were far away, and the "Feilong" was also attacked, after leaving the flagship, Lan Yun and the others could only drift on the sea.

Officially, they witnessed what happened next.

After receiving successive heavy blows, the "Jiahe" was almost completely engulfed by the fire.

Less than half past eleven, the "Jiahe" first had a relatively serious explosion, and only a few seconds later, it exploded again.

The explosion was so violent that it could be seen even from tens of kilometers away!

Before the smoke of the explosion cleared, the "Jiahe" disappeared from the sea with more than 1,000 officers and men who had not had time to evacuate.

It's less than three minutes before and after!

Judging by the power of the explosion, the second explosion must have been a martyrdom of the ammunition depot, and it is quite possible that it was the aviation ammunition depot where the bombs were stored.

In the case of the time, it may have been the fire that prevented the damage management personnel from entering the hull and did not fill the ammunition depot with water in time.

The previous explosion was most likely the third aviation armor-piercing shell that hit the "Jiahe" before, but did not explode immediately.

It was this bomb that detonated the ammunition depot!

However, it cannot be ruled out that the explosion of the oil-gas mixture produced by the volatilization of aviation gasoline that diffused into the interior of the ship.

In confined spaces, the explosive power of the oil-gas mixture even exceeds that of explosives.

In either case, it has a lot to do with the heavy aviation operations before.

Prior to this, the ground crew of the "Jiahe" had been damaged due to improper operation of the refueling system, which caused the aviation gasoline to leak.

As for the safety hazards that have not been reported, that is, have not been discovered, there are definitely too many.

In fact, this is also the key to the fact that the "Jiahe" caught fire after being shot, and the fire quickly spread to the whole ship and was not controlled at all.

If the fire hadn't been that big, or had been brought under control quickly, perhaps there wouldn't have been a big explosion later.

Of course, there are not so many ifs.

From the time of the first shot to the time of the explosion and sinking, a total of 15 minutes were passed before and after.

In addition to the dozens of officers and men of the Mobile Fleet Command who evacuated ahead of schedule, that is, Lan Yun and others, only seven of the 2,000 officers and men of the entire "Jiahe" fleet survived, from the captain of the ship, to Osa Taoka. According to survivors, Osaku Kooka was directing the battle at the last moments.

Of course, this is mostly bragging.

The explosion happened so suddenly, and before the explosion occurred, the fire had spread to all parts of the ship, and the captain was needed to direct the battle?

The aircraft carrier has lost its combat effectiveness, how can it still fight?

Even if Ooka did not leave his post without permission, he should still be in charge of damage management.

More credible, though.

Before the explosion, it is likely that Taoka locked himself in the bridge of the seafaring ship, intending to sink with the battleship, as the Sayoi Navy admired.

In the past few decades, similar things have happened so often that the captains of the Narrow Navy all think that it is the only way to demonstrate their personal worth, to show their loyalty to their country, to prove their bravery, and to go to heaven after death, but they have not thought about the meaning of living to face and bear suffering.

From the point of view of the Imperial Navy, only by surviving can we be qualified to talk about value, loyalty, and courage.

Seeking death, that is a means for cowards to escape difficulties!